Retirement
by Blue Beluga
Summary: Danny quits his job as a selfemployed hero, though as always, it doesn't last. Oneshot.


Disclaimer: I own nothing. Not Danny Phantom and not any other of Butch Hartman's creation. I definitely am not getting paid for this.

AN: This story doesn't really have a point, but it was just something that has been rattling around in my head. I always appreciate constructive criticism.

For those who reviewed my last little story, I apologize for not being able to get around to responding to your reviews.

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Retirement

The ball went up.

The ball went down.

Up.

Down.

Up.

Down.

Again and again, young Danny Fenton's hands would propel the grotesquely bright green tennis ball up towards his ceiling, only for it to come back down to his waiting hands as he lay on his bed.

He had been at it for an hour already, the simple game of playing catch with himself occupying his hands while his mind was busy with more important matters, namely the most recent 'argument' he had gotten into with his friends.

He wasn't quite sure if he could use the word 'argument' or even 'fight.' No single word really seemed to fit the one-sided list of complaints that his friends leveled at him every now and then. The theme of today was, once again, how they got in trouble for the damage he caused during his hunting.

While an understandable concern and he tried his best to address the issues raised by his friends, today had been worse than the previous times. Normally, these lists of grievances usually had a theme. Sometimes it had to do with the money Danny had to borrow, or perhaps the homework he needed to copy, or even the general lack of consideration he gave them while he was doing his thing.

Today, as his friends were once again complaining about getting into trouble and having to do clean-up duty, he suddenly realized that he didn't care

He was already serving detention for the entirety of next week due to being in the area after he had dealt with an excessively violent ghost after it had trashed the gym. To make it worse, he had just gotten his last test back for chemistry, only to find that he failed it. As a sort of icing on the cake, it looked like he would be serving more detentions as his father had shown up after someone pulled the ghost alarm and, once again, ended up blasting Mr. Lancer, who quite naturally put the punishment on him.

Couple that with the constant threat of being hunted by his parents, a good friend, and the government, not to mention his academic issues, his empathy for his friends plight was at an all time low. While this shouldn't have caused a problem, as he had learned to keep his mouth shut most of the time, his lack of interest must have showed on his face while Sam was going off about something or another.

One huge bout of yelling on Sam's and a few ill-chosen words on his part had led to the three friends parting ways on less than friendly terms. Hence, he was laying in his room on a Friday evening, instead of hanging out at Sam's and watching a movie, contemplating a difficult choice.

In truth, he hated how he had to function, borrowing from his friends and parents, missing curfew, failing classes, lying to his parents, his teachers, and most of all, disappointing his friends.

Despite his current apathy, he understood where Sam and Tucker were coming from, though he was unsure how to resolve the issues of his personal life and his ghostly life without giving up one or the other.

'Perhaps,' he though as he threw the ball into the air again, 'it is time I set aside the whole hunting business. I can get a job, focus on classes, and try to live my life.'

The more he lay there, throwing the bright green ball up into the air, over and over again, the more the idea of giving up hunting, at least for a little while, became appealing.

"I mean, why not?" he asked his empty room, catching the ball. "The Guys in White have a whole unit of soldiers with ecto weapons, Valerie is getting better, and even my parents are halfway decent. Yeah, it would be a difficult transition, but I'm sure they can adjust quickly enough."

Suddenly, he felt a chill run through him as a cool mist came out of his mouth.

"Going…" he stopped and looked at the green ball in his hand. He gazed intently at the fuzzy orb, as if it had the answers to his question.

Laying back down, the bright green ball left his hand.

Up.

Down.

Up.

Down.

A few minutes later, he heard the phone ring downstairs and, soon after, his parents rushing out of the house.

-DP-

"Now students, make sure you turn in your papers before class starts," Mr. Lancer called out to the mingling teens as they waited for the bell to ring, signaling the start of class.

Tucker and Sam looked at each other nervously, seeing that Danny hadn't shown up yet. They hadn't seen him since Friday and were concerned. As usual, they weren't truly angry with him and their fights tended to blow over within a day, but he usually didn't avoid them for this longs.

The two friends let out an almost audible sigh of relief when Danny walked in a full three minutes before the class was supposed to begin. He made a bee-line for Lancer's desk, placing a neatly stapled stack of paper on the pile with the book reports of the other students.

"Mr. Fenton," Mr. Lancer intoned, picking up the report and casually flipping through it, "I must say I'm impressed. On time _and_ the correct length. Let's hope the content is equally impressive."

"I hope so to," Danny smiled, walking happily to his seat next to his two friends.

"Hey guys," Danny smiled at the two of them as he sat down.

"So, no hard feelings, right dude?" Tucker looked at his friend warily, fearing the answer.

"Nah, it's good to have these things in the open," Danny replied nonchalantly, pulling his notebook out of his backpack.

"Uh, okay," Sam said, giving Danny a weird look, "who are you and what have you done with Danny?"

"It's me Sam, I just had a good weekend of no ghost hunting."

"Man, they left you alone all weekend?"

"Yeah Tuck, something like that," Danny replied, a sly smile gracing his lips.

The other two teens frowned but were prevented from questioning Danny more as the bell rang and Lancer called for the attention of the class.

The hour proceeded normally enough, though it came as a surprise to not only Tucker and Sam, but Mr. Lancer as well, when Danny successfully stayed awake the whole class time and even was able to participate in a class discussion Lancer tried to start.

By the end of class, Tucker and Sam were willing to believe that Danny was being overshadowed by Jazz, her lack of death not withstanding.

It wasn't until lunch time, as the three teens sat at a table outside, that the two non-half-ghosts of the trio of friends were able to confront Danny.

"So, you going to come hang out with us at the Nasty Burger?" Sam asked, her tone one of forced innocence, not wanting to start of grilling him.

"Can't," Danny muttered through the ham and cheese sandwich he was currently chewing on, "I have to work tonight. I think I'm cleared for tomorrow though.

This seemingly simple, normal statement resulted in Tucker coughing on his hamburger while Sam stared at him, wide-eyed and shocked.

"Dude, you have a _job_!" Tucker choked out. "What about you're _other_ job?"

"I quit," Danny took a sip of his cola, "the hours were lousy, the pay sucked, and the working conditions were terrible."

"You quit!" It seemed that Sam had finally found her voice. "How can you just _quit?!_"

"Look," Danny's voice was serious as he met the eyes of his two friends, "what you guys said on Friday made me realize something. This ghost fighting thing is putting a strain on our friendship and when it comes down to it, I would rather have friends then fans or sidekicks."

"Danny, we get frustrated sometimes," Sam tried to explain as she fought her own exasperation with him, "that doesn't mean we want you to quit. Who's going to protect the city?"

"That's easy," he stated, making it sound obvious," there is Valerie, The Guys in White, my parents; lots of people to stop those pesky ghosts."

"But, dude…"

"Fine, you want a better explanation?" Danny snapped back. "I had a lot of time to think Friday and aside from what this is doing to our friendship, some of the stuff Jazz talked to me about came to mind, especially about thinking about our future and that sort of junk. Look, we're in our junior year here and frankly, I don't want to be a ghost hunter. I want to go to college, get a real job, and maybe have a family, not something I can do if I fail school because of this hunting business. I'll leave the ghost hunting to people who get paid to spend their days chasing after 'em, and who have already had a chance to live life like they want to."

"You did have a lot of time to think, didn't you?" Tucker stated, more than asked, after a few moments of silence.

"Yeah, I did," he replied quietly.

"So," Sam added, trying to move the talk to something more casual "where did you find someone willing to hire you?"

-DP-

Danny smiled happily as he was shelving books at his job. It had been almost three months since he had started on his "retirement" from ghost hunting and almost everything had been looking up.

He was actually enjoying the job he had at a little bookstore in the older part of the city, mostly dealing with stocking and clean-up. The simple work with finite hours felt like a vacation to the 24/7 ghost watch had grown used to. Despite being minimum wage, it also paid a lot better than the hero gig. He had even developed a taste for science fiction novels, much to his surprise, and actually read a little now.

Besides his new job, other aspects of his life had improved as well. His grades had risen from his high D, low C average to a mid B, and according to Lancer, if he kept this up he might make it into the A range by the end of the year. He made curfew every night now, had time to do his chores around the house, and had even found time to date a nice girl who worked in the coffee shop that was attached the bookstore, though this annoyed Sam for some reason.

Of course, the transition to an Amity Park without Phantom was hardly a smooth one, for both humans and ghosts.

Danny's smile grew as he remembered the first time Skulker had shown up after Danny had given up hunting. Danny had been in the gym during class when the armored ghost phased through the wall and fired at Danny, ranting his usual spiel about his pelt hanging on the ghost wall.

The look on Skulker's face when Danny, instead of finding a place to go ghost, ran over to the wall and hit the schools ghost alarm, was priceless. The poor hunter actually looked lost as he watched Danny run out of the building with the rest of the students, still in his flesh and blood form. The scene was repeated in some form or another for the next few weeks with the other ghosts who were common around Amity, with Danny either sounding the alarm or calling the Guys in White's ghost hotline.

Of course, the added burden on Amity's ghost hunters showed as well. Valerie Grey, the angry, obsessive young girl who moonlit as the Red Hunter, was now constantly skipping class and forgetting to turn in homework as she stayed up all night chasing down ghosts. Every morning she would walk into class, dark rings beneath her eyes, looking frazzled and disheveled.

His parents had been forced to coordinate patrol efforts with the GiW to try and curb the rising number of ghost attacks. The GiW had even resorted to sending their soldiers to patrol the public areas of the city, as ghosts usually chose to attack them. Thus, one could not go the park, movies, or even the mall without coming across at least one of the white-armored ghost hunters.

None of this, however, bothered Danny in the least. With each passing week, the various hunters seemed to get a better grasp of the situation, becoming more alert and capable. Still, Danny knew it probably wouldn't last. The past few days had been bad, with a sharp increase in ghost attacks.

It seemed that much of the ghost zone now realized that Phantom no longer protected Amity Park. He figured, eventually, he would have to intervene again, but until that time, he would enjoy himself.

Thus, he had kept up with his training of his ghost half, though secretly dreading the day he would be called on again. Still, he was ready. He had been a ghost-human hybrid for over two years now and was continuously honing his ever growing repertoire of abilities. Even his friends had started joining him in his efforts to train himself, since they were no longer being worn out by long nights of hunting. Tucker even stopped complaining about the arduous exercise when an attractive girl actually noticed him for the muscle he was gaining from it.

It is perhaps worthy to note that Sam still had a ridiculous head start in the physical fitness department and both male friends had made it a contest to see who could surpass her first.

-DP-

As with most good things, Danny's retirement was interrupted one fine Sunday morning. As always, he had woken up, took a shower, and made himself breakfast before he headed off to work.

As he was eating his cereal, he flipped on the TV, only to stumble across a breaking news report. The images on the screen quickly flashed to the City Hall, showing his parents and a large group of GiW agents and soldiers trapped within a large, glowing blue dome as Walker's goons swarmed the streets, beginning a new campaign of oppression.

Grunting in disapproval at the images on the screen, he picked up the phone and called his boss.

"Yeah," he said as the elderly gentleman he worked for asked if he was okay, "but I won't be able to come in today." His boss, thinking Danny afraid to go out, said he understood and hoped to see him on Monday.

Danny hung up the phone and took one more glance at the television screen.

"I better get this over with," he muttered to himself. "Going ghost!"

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AN: I hope that was satisfactory. I appreciate helpful reviews and I will try and answer all of them this time.


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